Just over one year ago at the Vegas Grand Prix, the Cadillac racing team were ultimately awarded the green light as Formula One’s most recent entry for the 2026 season. Building the team from scratch has required a frenetic work rate that the team boss, Graeme Lowdon, has likened to the Apollo moon landing. As the sport converges on Vegas this weekend, Cadillac are aware the deadline is approaching.
The Countdown to Melbourne
At the season finale of the campaign to be staged in the America, with just over 100 days to go before they hit the circuit for the inaugural time in Melbourne at the 2026 opener, Cadillac have advanced rapidly but, in what must seem like a sisyphean task, they are cognizant there will not be enough hours in the day.
The technical director, Nick Chester, came aboard the newly formed project in March 2023 shortly after it was created, when the team were without even an official entry. He has been at its core ever since and has a amused expression when thinking about the ride.
“You might get five minutes reflecting at what the team has achieved and say: ‘Wow, how impressive what we have built in a short three-year period,’” he notes. “And then the following moment you consider: ‘Yeah, there is still a significant amount to do.’”
A One-of-a-Kind Task
Nick Chester achieved victories at Renault in Alonso's championship-winning campaigns of the mid-2000s and was in control of technical direction at the recently formed Mercedes electric racing team, but no previous experience has quite compared with the mission of launching the quintessentially American Cadillac name, a works entry supported by the corporate entity, General Motors, into the pinnacle of motorsport.
“Establishing an grand prix team from scratch, how often do you get the opportunity to do that?” he says. “There's nothing comparable. In an established team you won't have the opportunity to change team culture.”
With every day that passes thoughts are sharper on the approaching decisive point in Melbourne and targets are being set realistically.
“One must presume that a brand-new squad joining the grid is probably going to finish last but simply getting on to the grid will be an achievement in itself,” the team principal noted recently and while the CTO agreed with this sentiment he believed the team had a statement to make as well.
“The first thing we intend to prove is that we deserve to be there,” Chester explains. “So that we turn up and we operate well. We seek to prove that this is a professional operation performing the correct procedures on the track. When we have demonstrated that we are a legitimate team, then we aim to demonstrate progression from there on.”
Racing Talent and Team Building Push
In late summer they contracted Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as their drivers for 2026, a pair remarkable for their priceless expertise in competing at the sharp end in two top-tier teams, Red Bull and Mercedes, and Bottas echoed the sentiment of fighting spirit.
“Naturally, we’re realistic,” he said. “There’s going to be a massive task to do, and it will likely be almost certainly a challenging beginning, because it is F1. But we aren't joining to finish last. In my view with this setup, with this team, these personnel, it's entirely possible we can't manage to advance swiftly up to the pace and enjoy some success.”
To achieve that goal staff acquisition has been in overdrive, with staff now at in excess of 400 and scheduled to reach the goal of 600 members quickly. Complementing their current base at the UK base, the squad are in the phase of building an HQ at Fishers in Indianapolis and there is the General Motors facility in North Carolina, where they are building the plant to build the new engine, planned for 2029 – in the meantime they will use Ferrari engines – and the Toyota wind tunnel in Cologne. It is a sophisticated organisation, different from the movement in F1 for increased consolidation, and has prompted the new cultural approach to which the CTO alluded.
Space Mission Blueprint
“We've drawn heavily from the NASA moon mission,” said Graeme Lowdon ahead of the British GP in mid-season. “We have a clear-eyed view, we understand how difficult it is. The deadlines, are extremely compressed. Alright, it's not a space expedition, but it can seem that way.”
So they have implemented, instead of the traditional management structure, a decentralized management similar to that of NASA's, where there were a variety of project teams all tackling different aspects of the project in a variety of locations.
“If you have to go through a procedure where a challenge emerges and they escalate it to their manager, that supervisor communicates with a leader in another department, it travels back down, it’s super slow,” explains Nick Chester. “Therefore we enable team members to take charge. Moving away from management approval for all decisions is much smoother and faster.”
What Lies Ahead
The efficacy of this flexible methodology will be evaluated in the pressure of racing when the season begins and there is no little amount on the line for the sport, too. Cadillac have recruited as their reserve driver the young American Colton Herta
